A Matter of Strength
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: There's a reason why xelayans are fast-tracked through the Union Fleet...


**A Matter of Strength**

"Si vis pacem, para bellum."

"What?"

"If you want peace, prepare for war." Halsey looked at Grayson. "Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, _De Re Militari_. Good read. Least in Latin. English translation botched it a bit."

"There's thousands of languages spoken in the Union and you're studying Latin?"

" _Studied_ , Latin. I find it quite helpful."

"Helpful in what way?"

"Makes me sound intelligent."

"And is that why you pulled the quote out of nowhere?"

"I dunno. Just sounded fun."

Grayson scoffed, and the two officers kept walking down the corridors of the USS _Saint Helens_. A heavy cruiser in the heliosphere of the Tau Ceti system. Not the most obscure star system in the Union, but still one of the most obscure parts in space. Because space was big. Very big. Even in the 24th century, with faster than light travel a reality, no-one seemed to appreciate just how big space actually was. The heavy cruiser wasn't even on the same galactic plane as Tau Ceti's planets, but rather to its galactic north. If one had a telescope large enough to see the system in its entirety, they'd have seen one star, ten planets, and a warship pointing down straight at Tau Ceti itself, over a hundred astronomical units away. To those onboard the ship everything was aligned perfectly, with gravity at a standard 1g, but it was an illusion. Alignment in space could mean anything.

Halsey knew this. Grayson knew it as well – the man was a father, and that had made his heart bleed a little, but he still knew the game. Still knew all the dirty little secrets that needed to be kept in order to keep an interstellar society running. Men like he and Halsey, they were the watchers at the walls. Women like Admiral Shinaka, they were the people at the gate. The people they had to report to while on the walls, so that paradise could open the gates at will. Or in this case, the gates (technically doors) to _Saint Helens's_ black room. She'd even taken the time to have a pair of moclans act as door guards, who gave Halsey 'the look' before he and Grayson entered. The look that said "watch yourself, because if the admiral wanted to, you could be sent on a one way trip to a black hole."

But they didn't say that. Instead they saw Admiral Shinaka at the table, along with another man that Halsey didn't recognise. The admiral looked up at them.

"You're late."

Halsey and Grayson took their seats. It was a round table, but Halsey wasn't fooled – Shinaka was at its head, and she was no King Arthur. Or Guinevere. She might be a bit of a Morgana, but the analogy wasn't perfect – Morgana le Fay was a temptress who turned Mordred away from Arthur and sparked the downfall of Camelot. Shinaka was far too blunt for that approach – she was in power. She got what she wanted. She didn't need to seduce anyone to accomplish her goals.

"Sorry," Grayson said.

"Hmm." Shinaka pressed some buttons on the console in front of her. For all four in the room, a dossier materialize in front of them. Halsey looked at it.

 **Xelayan Recruitment: Increase in Enlistment in Planetary Union Forces – TOP SECRET**

"Xelayans," Grayson murmured. "Top secret."

"I can read, dumbass," Halsey muttered.

"Something you want to add to this Vice Admiral?" Shinaka asked.

Halsey shook his head.

"Good."

Grayson, God bless him (or damn him), didn't seem to want to be as quiet. "I don't understand," he said. "You convened a black room meeting to talk about xelayans? And without any xelayan representatives?"

"Well, I would have a xelayan here, except the number of xelayans in the fleet can be counted on the fingers of one hand," Shinaka said. She held up four. "Can you count, Grayson?"

"Four."

"Three."

Halsey looked to the unknown in the room. The one who'd remained silent up until now.

"Three," he repeated, looking at Shinaka. "Remember?"

"Hmm?"

"USS _Tigress_ was destroyed last week with all hands lost."

Shinaka swore. Halsey winced – he'd never heard Shinaka swear before.

" _Tigress_ ," she murmured. "Christ, how could I forget about the _Tigress_? God knows the krill won't let us forget."

"The _Tigress_?" Grayson asked.

"Yes, Grayson,the _Tigress_ ," Shinaka snapped. "A heavy cruiser that the krill boarded, looted, and destroyed. One that had an Ensign Salera Ysin onboard. A xelayan, to be specific."

"And how does that concern us?" Halsey said. Shinaka looked at him and he added, "I mean, the fact that there was a xelayan onboard."

"It matters, because after this meeting, all four of us are going to be disseminating this memo throughout the Union Fleet," Shinaka said. "Admiralty, ship operations, intelligence, and requisitions."

Requisitions, Halsey thought. Was that where the man was from? He peered through the gloom and read his name tag – Finn. A simple name. He didn't trust people with simple names.

"I still don't understand," Grayson said. "Why do we want more xelayans? They're a race of philosophers and diplomats. They detest the very idea of serving in the fleet."

Shinaka smiled. "All true. But what else?"

"I…I don't know."

She sighed. "Finn?"

"Strength." All eyes turned to Finn. "The xelayans are strong. Stronger than any Planetary Union species, to be exact. When you grow up in a 1.8g environment, a 1g environment is a picnic."

Halsey knew this. Everyone knew about the xelayans' super strength. Only slightly fewer people knew just how few xelayans seemed to be willing to use it. They were a paradox – super strength, but dedicated to academic pursuits. It was a generalization, sure, but the statistics stood for themselves. Four xelayans in the fleet, now reduced to three.

And Shinaka wanted more of them. And even if Grayson didn't get why, Halsey was beginning to understand.

"So we want more xelayans," he said slowly. He began flicking through the dossier. "According to this, we want them so much that any xelayan who enlists is to be fast-tracked to officer status." He looked at Shinaka. "Didn't think you were one for affirmative action."

"I am, when it suits the Union," she said.

"And how does it serve the Union?"

Grayson didn't say anything, and Shinaka sighed. "Halsey? Care to enlighten us where Union Intelligence can't?"

For a moment, Halsey didn't say anything. It was a trait he'd long since learnt about Shinaka – she liked to prompt other people to answer, to come to the conclusion themselves. The charitable view was that she wanted to prompt independent thinking. The more realistic view was that my speaking ideas that aligned with her own, it would make those around her more recipient towards them. To subconsciously fool people into agreeing with propositions they might otherwise oppose. Halsey didn't know where the truth lay, but one way or another, Admiral Shinaka got what she wanted.

"Well?"

He decided to take the bait. "Most Union species are at home in a 1g environment," he began. "Xelayans are used to gravity nearly twice what we are, yet are of similar height – effectively more muscle compacted into the same mass."

"And?"

"And given their high strength in low gravity, if one could offset the effects of muscular dystrophy…that would make them useful in close quarters combat."

"And who likes to board our ships?"

"The krill?"

Shinaka slowly clapped. "Well done Halsey. Well done. You'll be an admiral in no time."

He didn't doubt that. Not necessarily for the reasons Shinaka stated, but, well, he understood the game. Even if Grayson didn't.

"Are you serious?" Grayson asked. "You want to fast track xelayans for military means?"

"In effect, yes," Shinaka said. "Get some in, fast track them, give the xelayans a favourable impression to Union service. Let those xelayans go home, pop out some children, and within two generations, we could increase their rate of enlistment by…how much Finn?"

"Seventy percent."

"Seventy percent," Shinaka repeated. "That's seventy percent more xelayans in our fleet. Enough to make the krill seventy percent more worried when they board our ships, hell, maybe even attack them in the first place."

"And do the xelayans know about this?" Grayson asked.

"No, and we're going to make it stay that way," Shinaka said.

"But-"

"The xelayans think we're the bumpkins of the galaxy. Warmongers. Imbeciles." Shinka smirked. "Well, let them think that. Hell, I'd prefer it if they _did_ think that, at least until we observe a cultural shift."

Grayson tossed the dossier over the table. "I'm not doing this."

Halsey's heart skipped a bit. Finn looked suddenly interested. Shinka looked ready to murder someone.

"Come again, Grayson?"

"This isn't me. This isn't us."

"You're in Intelligence and-"

"Intelligence to protect the Union, not subverting it."

"You _are_ protecting the Union, and you _will_ follow my orders," Shinaka said. "Otherwise you can kiss your career goodbye, and any chance your daughter might have of following in your footsteps. And two decades from now, when we're at war with the krill, you can kiss your self-worth goodbye in the knowledge that you hindered perhaps the best method of increasing our ships' proficiency in CQB."

CQB. Close quarters battle. Halsey knew the term. It was practically archaic by today's standards, given that on the rare occasion that Union ships engaged in battle, it was between capital-class vessels, and at ranges of tens of thousands of klick. The krill though…they were changing that. Changing it faster than he, Shinaka, or the Admiralty cared for.

"Si vis pacem, para bellum," Halsey murmured.

Grayson shot him a look. The look that said "damn you" in more ways than one. Finn was back to being a quiet enigma. Shinaka looked pleased, before saying "katte kabuto no o o shimeyo."

"Pardon?" Grayson asked.

"After victory, tighten your helmet," she said. "A.k.a. the Union's at peace, as far as its people know, and it's our job to prepare for war when it comes. Which means that we have to do things that some people might balk at. Which means that it's time we start reading the dossier and get some xelayans into the fleet." She paused. "No objections, of course?"

There were none. Not even from Grayson. Shinaka hadn't threatened him with a black hole, Halsey reflected, she'd threatened him with worse.

And as much as he hated to admit it…he kind of admired her for that.


End file.
